Dominic Crane, Picture from Allgigs.co.uk.

Originally published by L.S. Media. July 1st 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

There is something to be said for the moment where you realise that a performer of glorious musical intelligence is playing his heart out in front of you. That moment is magnified when as a music lover, no matter the genre, you are sure that what you are seeing before you is one of the most unlikely best support acts you are likely to hear in any year.

Dominic Crane is as pleasant a musician as you could hope to meet. To hear the power of his vocals, the sheer talent that comes through in a packed hall and the ability to hold an audience’s attention with artistic endeavour is life affirming. It’s at that moment that music really does become one of the most important parts of life.

The Birmingham musician went through his outstanding repertoire with a sense of style, sophistication and subtle humour. The opening number of the night, the charming So Moseley dealt with an expression of love where the young Dominic Crane went into a shop in the fashionable bohemian centre of Birmingham looking for glasses and in his search found the person who was to become his wife. Instead of schmaltz and a cheesy atmosphere, the musician dealt with the cracking heckling enquiry of did he ever find his glasses with a grin that not only lit up the room but disarmed the audience who waited patiently for the reason they had come out on a stormy Saturday night.

Other songs came and went, and the crowd who had been warming to the guitar player all evening, were soon bowled over beyond the normal boundaries of support act following. It was one of those rare moments in time, so rare that they really happen only to the very best of musicians where the support act was actually nearly as good as the main band. In terms of musicianship, Dominic Crane could certainly hold his own with some justification against some of the very best that Birmingham has ever had to offer to the music world.

As with other support slots though, time is always short and even with an eight song set list; which included the excellent American Tan, Cool With Everything and Baggage Man, felt as though could have gone on for most of the evening. Certainly from the looks on some of the bewitched faces in the audience, they wouldn’t have minded.

A cracking performance by Dominic Crane.

Ian D. Hall